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Terminator: Dark Fate
Movie

Terminator: Dark Fate

2019 • Unknown

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.

Overall Series Review

The film attempts to soft-reboot the franchise by discarding the legacy of the original male savior and centering the narrative on an entirely new, all-female heroic triad. The plot revolves around an augmented super-soldier and the original heroine, Sarah Connor, protecting the new resistance leader, a young Latina woman named Dani Ramos. The movie structurally replays the plot of *Terminator 2: Judgment Day* but with significant changes to the characters’ identities and gender roles. The male savior of the previous films is killed off early in the story, and the returning male Terminator is given a domestic, non-threatening arc as a family man and drapery salesman. The hero’s journey is shifted from the concept of a mother protecting her son to a diverse female leader protecting humanity through her own strength and future authority. The film integrates contemporary social commentary, particularly during a sequence at the U.S.-Mexico border, which frames American law enforcement in a negative light. The dynamic between the three female leads is highly intense, with one of the new characters embracing an androgynous, militaristic persona. The themes of motherhood and male legacy are directly rejected in favor of an empowered, non-natal female leadership. This shift is intentional and serves as the primary engine for the narrative's new direction.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The movie kills off the white male savior figure, John Connor, early in the story, rendering his original heroic arc moot. The new leader of the future resistance is Dani Ramos, a young Latina woman. The main heroic team consists of three women of varying ages and ethnicities, with men occupying subservient or villainous roles. A scene at the U.S.-Mexico border briefly frames U.S. Border Patrol agents negatively, portraying them as an obstacle to the heroes.

Oikophobia7/10

The plot shifts the entire fate of humanity and the resistance from the established Western/American-centric Connor family to a new figure, Dani Ramos, who is based in Mexico. The United States Border Patrol is depicted as an antagonistic force, an institutional obstacle that the heroes must overcome, suggesting a critique of Western state control and heritage.

Feminism9/10

The narrative explicitly redefines the core mythos by making the new savior, Dani, the leader of the resistance herself, rather than merely the 'vessel' or mother of the leader, which directly rejects the original film's emphasis on motherhood. The primary male character, the T-800, is minimized to a domestic, nonsexual role as a drapery salesman who developed a conscience. The hyper-masculine protector role is taken by an augmented woman, Grace, who has a highly militarized and physically dominant presence.

LGBTQ+6/10

The augmented soldier, Grace, is presented with a strongly androgynous, 'butch' appearance and is intensely devoted to protecting Dani Ramos. Although no explicit sexuality is stated for the main characters, the strong emotional and physical pairing of the androgynous female soldier and the young female leader generates significant queer subtext and is read by cultural commentators as a non-traditional pairing.

Anti-Theism2/10

There is no overt anti-theistic messaging or vilification of Christian characters. Sarah Connor makes a comment referencing herself as *not* the 'Virgin Mary,' which critiques her previous role as a maternal symbol but does not constitute a broad attack on religion. The spiritual vacuum is the standard technological apocalypse of the franchise.